Special Report: Ransomware & Scams in 2024

Travelers Insurance said the fourth quarter of 2024 saw at least 1,663 ransomware attacks. That’s up 32% from the 3rd quarter. For 2024 overall, ransomware attacks rose 15% over 2023 with a reported 5,243 attacks. In 2023 there were 4,548 of them.

Comparitech said the the average amount demanded by cyber criminals was $3.5 million in 2024.

Travelers’ vice president and cyber risk officer, Jason Rebholz said criminals used to be more opportunistic. These days they’re actually targeting private networks with weak credentials, IT services and consulting companies that serve clients across many industries. This makes the attacks much more effective.

Government is also a big target along with hospitals, healthcare organizations and the construction industry. “These groups have been on the offensive, proactively hunting for targets and having significant success,” Rebholz said.

He also noted there were many new ransomware groups active in 2024. The year saw 55 new groups and a 67% increase over 2023.

“It’s vital that businesses implement proven security controls, such as MFA (multi-factor authentication), to make it far more challenging for malicious actors to carry out an attack on their organization,” Rebholz said.

When it comes to fraud, consumers lost $12.5 billion in 2024. That statistic is courtesy of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The dollar amount lost came is a 25% increase over 2023 though the number of fraud reports remained about the same at 2.6 million. 

The number of people losing money in 2024 is 38% compared to 27% in 2023 with investment scams leading the pack as the most popular scam. The amount of money lost to those scams hit $5.7 billion, a 24% increase. In second place is imposter scams. They cost consumers $2.95 billion.

Most consumers got the cash for these investments from bank transfers or cryptocurrency.

A lot of fraud is done online. The IT and cyber security firm, Next Perimeter looked at data from the Internet Crime Complaint Center. It said the PIA Western Alliance states of Nevada and California and New Jersey were hit hardest last year.

They rank 1, 2 and 3. Also in the top 10 are the PIA Western Alliance states of Alaska, Arizona and Montana. The rest of the list is South Dakota, New York, Utah and Florida.

Next Perimeter chief information officer, Michael Moore said the highest losses per capita are from Nevada at $62.60 per person. California had the highest overall total losses. That figure is $2.16 billion, or $55.53 per capita.

Kentucky had the lowest financial losses at $10.74 per capita.

“Digital fraud patterns tell us something important about cybersecurity in America today,” Moore said. “Areas with higher levels of digital transactions and technological integration face greater risks from online fraud. This points to a key challenge — the same digital infrastructure that drives economic growth can create opportunities for cybercriminals.”

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